It may be useful to keep tabs on last year’s USACE expansion application of the PCS (now Nutrien) phosphate mine in Hamilton County, FL.
Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, SAJ-1984-04652 (MOD-JPF), Published Oct. 15, 2018, Expiration date: 11/14/2018
Here are the rest of the maps from that document. Continue reading
Nineteen paddlers in fifteen boats braved the early morning deluge, which quit just in time to start paddling the Alapaha River from Statenville Boat Ramp to Sasser Landing, past many waterfalls, quite a few shoals, one real rapid, and an incoming river too fast to paddle up. Even a couple of unexpected boat ramps, one of them concrete.
![[Ronnie, Shirley, Fountain, 13:50:02, 30.6253002, -83.0480667]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-06--statenville-sasser-pictures/20190706_135002.jpg)
Ronnie, Shirley, Fountain, 13:50:02, 30.6253002, -83.0480667
Around every corner, a waterfall. Continue reading
Water quality testing of drinking wells and rivers is needed, and not just when there is a spill. Maybe the state of Florida will help fund it. Or maybe Valdosta should. It doesn’t seem right that Hamilton County should have to pay for it.
For the WWALS automated updates on GA-EPD Sewage Spills Reports,
see
wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/.
The main newspaper of Suwannee and Hamilton Counties, Florida, is getting into the act, but seems to only know part of the picture. Editorial: It’s time for support with sewage spills, The Suwannee Democrat, Jan 24, 2019, Continue reading
Four years ago Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson set the festive tone outside a special Sabal Trail Open House:
Photo: John S. Quarterman, the family that demonstrates together stays together:
“No pipeline in springs heartland” and “No pipeline in my future” and “Stop fossil fuel production”.
Merrillee has been in the thick of opposing fossil fuel boondoggles and promoting clean solar power since at least 2013.
Why was this one of only two Sabal Trail Open Houses in fall 2014, way back when FERC’s John Peconom actually answered when any of us called? Continue reading
Update 2018-04-10: Canoeing from the Little to the Chee by Burt Kornegay 2018-03-24.
![[Phil Hubbard interviews Burt Kornegay]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-03-24--burt-kornegay/sddefault.jpg)
Very experienced retired outfitter Burt Kornegay from western north Carolina paddled
the Little River from just below its one dam to the Withlacoochee and
on to the Suwannee a week ago, and liked it a lot.
If you want a really good four-day canoe trip, put in right near Reed Bingham State Park at the highway 37 bridge. There’s an excellent put in right there. And spend four days canoeing down this river. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
That’s from somebody who has led expeditions all over the U.S., from the Grand Canyon to the Smokey Mountains, interviewed Saturday a week ago at Troupville Boat Ramp.
See also: Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and soon in Columbia County? 2018-07-11.
Hamilton County citizen and WWALS member Chris Mericle sent this Friday, with permission to post.
Hey John,
I just wanted to relate to you the status of the 5 year mining permit renewal for Nutrien (formerly PCS).
I was in a long teleconference yesterday afternoon where we were trying to negotiate for several modifications to the mining permit.
Figure 4. Location of existing and proposed Phosphogypsum Stack Systems (PGSS), in
FINAL REPORT: Review of PCS Phosphate — White Springs;
Activities and Operations Related to
Five-Year Renewal of Special Permit 03-1.
Review Period: January 2013 through December 2017
Prepared tor:
Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners.
February 23, 2018.
Prepared by:
Lampl-Herbert
In attendance: Continue reading
Update 2023-12-28: Revised version..
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west. You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee. Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.
Irwin County, 1885a, GeorgiaInfo, Rand McNally Map of Georgia, 1885
Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12., quoted in Ray City History Blog, 18 October 2010, More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River,
THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges Continue reading
See also: Nutrien (PCS Phosphate mine) 5-year permit renewal 2018-03-16.
Update 2018-01-25: Fixed Attorney Scott Shirley’s attribution.
Hamilton County did due diligence by hiring a consultant to review the PCS phosphate mine’s record and permit applications. The Mericles and me were the only non-county non-PCS people who spoke, but the Planning and Zoning Board interacted quite a bit last night at the public hearings. Both the motions they passed recommended approval of the permits, but the second motion included taking into account the points raised by the public, such as better public access to permit materials and review of the mining company’s water quality data.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS,
Left to right:
Deanna Mericle,
Consultant Gregory M. Hitz,
County Attorney Cliff Adams,
Planning and Zoning Board:
A.L. Milner(?),
Eddie Wynn,
Megan Carter,
Jim Tompkins,
Harrell Tyree,
Riley L. Anderson,
for PCS: Attorney Scott Shirley, Danny Johnson.
County Attorney Cliff Adams took notes throughout, and there was a sound recording.
The public consisted of Continue reading
See also: Pictures: PCS Phosphate mine permit Public Hearings, Jasper, FL 2018-01-23.
While residents of Union and Bradford Counties, Florida try to fight off the proposed HPS II phosphate mine on the New and Santa Fe Rivers, Hamilton County faces renewal and modification of permits for the PCS Phosphate mine, near White Springs and the Suwannee River.
When: 6PM, Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Where:
County Commission Meeting Room, County Courthouse,
207 Northeast First Street, Jasper, Florida
What: North Florida Public Notices, search for PCS Phosphate finds notices for two public hearings the same evening:
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS on
Southwings flight 2016-10-22.
1. 1/11/2018
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR MODIFICATION TO MASTER MINING PLAN AND SPECIAL PERMIT BY THE PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD OF HAMILTON COUNTY, FLORIDA, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that, Continue reading
Irony: Duke Energy is building a 75 megawatt solar farm right next to the Sabal Trail pipeline, of which Duke is a 7.5% owner.
Dust no more! The same place Chris Mericle reported having a dust storm little more than a week ago, last week he discovered Duke Energy is replacing the center pivots with solar panels.
SW 69th Drive and SW 40th Avenue, in Sabal Trail path digitized by WWALS.
The little red dot near the center of the above map is where Duke Energy says this solar farm will go. The red line is the Sabal Trail pipeline, next to the power line Duke will be using for the solar electricity. How about turn off the pipeline, Duke, and put solar panels along its right of way? As I computed using Sabal Trail’s own figures three and a half years ago, half that RoW acreage could generate just as much electricity from the sun as that pipeline would ever produce, and solar panel prices have gone down since then.
Duke Energy Florida, unknown date, Hamilton Solar Plant, Continue reading
![[Location Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-10-15--pcs-phosphate-usace/p16021coll7_8308-0006.jpg)
![[A happy paddler]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-03-24--burt-kornegay/20180324_141501.jpg)